Throwback: When India bowled 100 overs to share Champions Trophy title with Sri Lanka

The 2002 Champions Trophy final between India and Sri Lanka became the talking point of the year, as the match ended in no result despite the teams playing on the reserve day. On the first day, Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya won the toss and opted to bat. On the back of his 74 and Kumar Sangakkara’s 54, Sri Lanka managed to post a respectable 244/5. 

As Indian openers Dinesh Mongia and Virender Sehwag came out to bat, they got to play only two overs and scored 14 runs before the play was halted due to rain, which did not relent and pushed the game into the reserve day. Unlike the modern rule of resuming the game from where it stopped on the previous day, the game started afresh the next day, with India bowling to Sri Lanka again as the latter won the toss and opted to bat again.

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Like the previous day, Indian bowlers were on point again as Zaheer Khan dazzled with three wickets for 44 runs, helping India restrict the Lankans to 222/7. India were poised to chase the target comfortably with heavyweight batting lineup, however, they lost Mongia for a duck before Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar started to rebuild the innings. Sehwag and Tendulkar were unbeaten on 25 and seven respectively when rain interrupted the game again, with India’s score 38/1. 

Despite a long wait, the game was called off and the trophy was shared between India and Sri Lanka. It is worth noting that throughout the two days of play, India bowled 100 overs and batted just 10.4 overs. This was also the maiden Champions Trophy 2025 triumph for both sides. After almost 11 years, India went on to lift the Champions Trophy title as the sole winner in 2013 under MS Dhoni. This was just two years after winning the ODI World Cup 2011 at home.